Spy Games

Nancy Pelosi said Thursday, "We were told that waterboarding was not being used. That's the only mention, that they were not using it. And we now know that earlier they were." For those of you who may not have been following the current soap opera, "they" are the Central Intelligence Agency. The Speaker of the House is suggesting that the CIA lied to her. I have another briefing for the Speaker, and I will keep it brief: Duh.
It is the CIA's job to lie. It is their business. Covert operations and so forth, you may have heard? According to United States law, they are the only agency allowed to carry out such actions. The overthrow of Iran's government in 1953, the Bay of Pigs, several failed attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, the "secret war" in Laos, and then there was the arming of thousands of Afghan moujajedeen. These are the ones we know about. The notion that we have now achieved full disclosure from a group that regularly refers to themselves as "spooks," seems disingenuous. If there was any torture going on by a United States agency, wouldn't you expect it to be the CIA? Doesn't the Speaker watch "24?"
I understand how let down Nancy must feel. I would like to believe that the United States will always act in the most noble and courageous manner. I would like to believe that torturing anyone puts us on the same moral footing as "the bad guys." I also understand, without the benefit of a private briefing on "enhanced interrogation techniques," that this is not the reality in which we have been living since 1947. CIA spokesman George Little said, "It is not the policy of this Agency to mislead the United States Congress." As far as we know. It should not be the policy of the United States Congress to simply take the CIA at their word.